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Out of Africa: Nature as Teacher by Angela Rieck

September 19, 2019 by Angela Rieck Leave a Comment

I recently returned from Kruger National Park in South Africa. In the next few columns, I will cover what I learned from the master teacher—nature.

Kruger was created in the late 1920s and is one of the largest national wildlife parks, approximately the size of New Jersey. Kruger differs from the East and Central African savannahs because has some woodlands and offers a wider variety of animals but in smaller numbers.

As one of South Africa’s greatest assets, Kruger is highly respected, spotlessly maintained, with no litter, few bones and even fewer skeletons.

Winter is the dry season in Kruger, so the bushveld savannah is thick with dried grasslands, thirsty bushes and bare trees.

And it can be cold, especially on the 3-hour morning open-air game drive, commencing at 6 a.m. with temperatures hovering in the 50s. At 3:30 p.m., we hopped into the open-air land rovers for the 3-hour afternoon game drive. A ranger drove the land rover and a tracker sat in a jump seat in the front to spot the abundant wildlife and provide protection, in the very rare instance of danger.

While these are wild animals, they have become quite used to humans, and view us as a curiosity, an annoyance or simply an irrelevance. For that reason, we were able to get within a few feet of the animals without impacting their behavior. For example, when observing prides of lions, not even the cubs bothered to look in our direction.

Seeing animals in their natural environment is breathtaking. In one instance we were able to watch rare wild dogs consume their kill.

Wild dogs are beautiful creatures. Their faces resemble German Shepherds. They have large rounded ears like hyenas. Their slim, slightly built bodies are covered in a beautiful camouflage colored fur.

Wild dogs are endangered, so observing them is a real treat. They travel in packs of 7-10 and move quickly, often crossing national boundaries in a matter of days. To feed the pack, they must hunt twice a day. Due to finely tuned, flawless cooperation, they are the most effective hunters in South Africa, boasting success rates as high as 90% (compared to 25% for lions and 17% for wolves). In Kruger they feast on antelope such as Impala, Kudus, Nyalas, Duikers and Steenboks.

We had the incredible fortune of encountering a pack within 10 minutes of killing a young male impala.

The dogs worked flawlessly as a group, taking turns feasting on the antelope while others guarded the kill. There were no disagreements, just a silent understanding of their roles.

Aware that hyenas would immediately pick up the scent of the kill, they ate quickly. Sure enough, within minutes, two hyenas appeared, intent upon stealing the kill.

Each hyena was twice their size, and had the hyenas used a coordinated attack they would have been able to steal the kill. But the hyenas bickered among themselves, allowing the smaller dogs to keep them pinned.

The coordination among the pack was amazing, each instinctively knew their roles, didn’t bark, growl or yelp (I wish they could train my dogs). As soon as the hyenas arrived, other members of the pack stopped eating to assist the guards.

Despite their nasty reputation, hyenas have one of the most important roles in the bush. Their strong jaws can crush and consume large bones that even lions cannot break.

We observed one hyena steal the impala’s head and crush and swallow it in a single bite. Hyenas eat so much bone that their scat (a euphemism for you know what) resembles white chicken eggs.

We watched while nature continued to do its dance. While the dogs ate, vultures hovered in the bare trees. A few brave ones began to pick around the feast. But for the most part, they waited for the hyenas and dogs to finish.

One by one the dogs silently crept back to their den, knowing that their pups were vulnerable to hyenas, lions and leopards, they were careful to escape unnoticed. Back in the den, the pack would regurgitate some of their food for the pups.

After the dogs departed, the hyenas grabbed the large bones and the vultures wandered around the site eating any remaining morsels of flesh.

Within ½ hour all signs of the kill were gone, anyone wandering onto the scene would see only matted grass and perhaps a wandering hyena or vulture searching for scraps.

So what did nature teach me?

The dogs acting collectively were able to beat a greater foe.
The vultures, believing there would be enough for them, patiently waited their turn.
The underappreciated cleanup crew of hyenas and vultures left the place spotless. Without them, the bush would be filled with rotting corpses and skeletons.

It was nature’s play where everyone understood their roles. Their life and death struggle choreographed into a flawless dance.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Scary Stuff by Al Sikes

September 19, 2019 by Al Sikes 1 Comment

Thought is fragile—authority even more so.

If you defy thought’s first principle, thoughtfulness, the value of what one thinks decays quickly. Thoughts, ideas, plans are highly perishable. The wise test thought before asserting it and especially when the risks of failure are substantial. Presumably, if you occupy the White House, the risks are more important than penalties for failing to leash your dog.

Donald Trump in today’s news cycle, hyper-attenuated by Twitter, frequently displays thoughtlessness hourly. What is Iran to anticipate when the words are aggressive and the action passive?

Authority’s first principle is to use it carefully. Authority finds its highest value when it doesn’t have to be used; when those over whom you seek authority quietly yield. And thoughtful politicians understand that overused authority results in few, if any, lasting accomplishments.

What about dogma? Dogma according to the Cambridge English Dictionary means: “a fixed, especially religious, belief or set of beliefs that people are expected to accept without any doubts.”

In today’s Democratic primary, dogmatic assertions and compliance is pervasive. In the case of climate change, the underlying dogma is that a massive federal intervention is required and religious fealty is measured by trillions of dollars pledged. No time is spent on the sources of money.

The news media which has historically probed and probed and probed for rational thought often simply asks candidates to raise their hand if they support the “Green New Deal”. So rather than asking about the investment and regulatory framework needed to ramp up the use of “renewable sources” or the extent to which “carbon recapture” holds promise, emotive words suffice.

Now let me step back. We need a thoughtful leader whose assertion of authority is insightful and measured. Trump has stomped all over these criteria. And most of the Democrats running for their Party’s nomination are so compliant with dogma as to forfeit the opportunity to demonstrate independent thought. Although, I should give Senator Bernie Sanders a shout-out as on many fronts he has been specific and has led his challengers, thus his national Party, to the far left.

President Trump’s weaknesses are clear. But, the one thing he will have going for him is a pattern of results. Regardless of his almost daily breaching of the first principles of thought and authority there will be a pattern of results (like them or not).

I am adrift politically. My guess is that I am a part of a very large group of voters. But let me make a modest suggestion to Democrat leaders. There is nobody in the upper tier (Biden, Warren, Sanders) who will be easily embraced by a majority of Americans. It would be too bad if Trump won reelection because intense elements in the base of the Democrat Party shoved the Party too far to the left.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.

Two (More) Dollars by Jamie Kirkpatrick

September 17, 2019 by Jamie Kirkpatrick 1 Comment

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, I told you about an encounter I had with a man sitting on a bench. He asked me for two dollars. I didn’t have any cash so we just talked pleasantly for several minutes before I had to move on. Later, when I went to select an image to accompany my article, I chose a painting entitled “Man on a Bench” by Horace Pippin, an African-American artist whose body of work was greatly influenced by the issues of slavery and segregation. Easy enough, but when I did a little additional research on Mr. Pippin, I found this image—a self portrait currently on display at the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia—among other examples of his work. That was when things got a little weird because this was undoubtedly the man I met on the bench. The only problem was that Horace Pippin died in 1946.

So now I find myself in the middle of a ghost story which is uncharted territory for me. I think I can believe in ghosts—restless souls still among us long after their mortal coil is gone—but I’m uncertain about the messages they bear. My encounter with this gentleman didn’t feel like a haunting and his presence was certainly corporal; I know because I patted his very solid shoulder. Moreover, he wasn’t cold as some people have described when they have encounter an apparition. I don’t even know what message Mr. Pippin had for me, other than to make me contemplate the existence of spirits, benign or otherwise. It’s a mystery.

Or maybe I can believe in something like a wrinkle in time when some oddity in the time-space continuum imposes a surprise sequence of events that falls outside our ordered understanding of reality. In his Theory of Relativity, Einstein proposed that matter can “bend” the fabric of space and time, making a shadow universe physically possible. I’ll be the first to admit that this falls way beyond my ken, but if time wrinkles are good enough for Professor Einstein, they’re good enough for me.

There is, of course, a third possibility. The man I met was not Mr. Pippin or his shade; he was just one of the legion of panhandlers who inhabit any big city and he happened to bear a passing resemblance to Mr. Pippin’s self-portrait. He needed two dollars to buy something unsavory, although I’m not sure much that is savory or unsavory can be purchased for two dollars these days. I assert that option here because it’s a plausible explanation for what occurred but I don’t really subscribe to that theory. It just didn’t feel like a shakedown. Plus, this was no mere “passing resemblance;” this was Horace Pippin’s self-portrait animated.

Anyway, since my initial meeting with Mr. Pippin (or perhaps his doppelgänger), I’ve returned several times to the site of that encounter hoping to reinitiate contact. So far, no luck. But I realize that since that day, I’ve been continually walking around with a third eye open on the off chance that Mr. Pippin is walking around looking for me because I failed to get his message the first time around. Do you think I’m crazy? I don’t, but then again, I’m biased. I assume sanity to be my starting point, but beyond that, all bets are off.

So let’s just imagine for a moment that I did encounter Horace Pippin (or his shade) on that bench two weeks ago and that there is some lesson still to be learned from the encounter. Maybe it has something to do with inflation. During the Great Depression, a displaced soul might have asked to borrow a dime, but today that dime certainly wouldn’t buy a cup of coffee. (Can a ghost even drink coffee?) Or was our conversation a manifestation of the possibility of connecting with someone from another time or world? That thought appeals to me; I would love to meet my seven-times-great grandfather who emigrated from Scotland back in the 18th Century, or, for that matter, any of my ancestors who could shed light on people and events that made me who I am today. I realize that sounds a bit egocentric, but whose shadow would you choose to encounter on a bench someday?

Think about it. Meanwhile, I’ll keep returning to the spot of my encounter with Horace Pippin. You just never know.

I’ll be right back.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer with homes in Chestertown and Bethesda. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy magazine. “A Place to Stand,” a book of photographs and essays about Landon School, was published by the Chester River Press in 2015. A collection of his essays titled “Musing Right Along” was published in May 2017; a second volume of Musings entitled “I’ll Be Right Back” was released in June 2018. Jamie’s website is www.musingjamie.com

Out and About (Sort of): Learning Outside Classroom by Howard Freedlander

September 17, 2019 by Howard Freedlander Leave a Comment

Fall…is it here? Can we push aside the heat and humidity for nine months?

School has begun. That’s a good sign. Buses with kids carrying backpacks joyfully (?) get on and off buses. Parents wait and wonder if their child had a good or bad day. Were friends friendly? Were teachers stern but accommodating? How was the cafeteria food?

Did you learn anything? I’m not sure that parents get a very good response to that age-old question. I always dreaded that query; if not posed by my parents, it always hung in the air, even through college.

Education and history are on my mind. I’ll explain.

Recently my daughter and granddaughter visited Shanksville, PA., site of a national monument to those killed trying to thwart yet another terrorist hijacking of a plane supposedly headed for the nation’s capital. My granddaughter had not been born on 9/11/01.

She thought all of today’s intrusive but important security measures always existed. Weren’t cockpits always double-locked? Weren’t security checkpoints always an understandable nuisance?

My granddaughter learned a bunch outside a classroom by visiting a national monument born of tragedy. It was a sad but important teaching moment. She had to process senseless death and inhuman behavior. She had to understand that terrorism is a daily fear Also, she learned that air travel once upon not such a distant time was more relaxed, less fraught with security precautions.

Could she have learned the same in a classroom? I doubt it.

I’ve always wondered about the value of field trips, which seem to happen at the end of the year when teachers and students are tired, understandably. What lessons are intended?

I’m not trying to denigrate field trips—just a comment on experiential learning. Well-known to educators. I trust that educators will not consider me cantankerous and unappreciative of the opportunity to venture outside the bounds of a distinct classroom.

Last week I wrote about 9/11 and my effort to extract something positive from an immense blow to our homeland. I won’t rehash my comments. I just keep thinking about my granddaughter’s reaction when she learned that air travel once upon a time was more open and accessible.

Our lives were better. We were freer. Passengers felt tense trying to avoid missing a flight, not enduring personal searches and long security lines.

This nagging thought—that what happened in our past must never be forgotten or discounted— haunts me constantly. For example, I find myself telling my daughters about discrimination faced by women not that long ago. I do so because I want them to know how much society has changed, for the better in this instance.

When my determined mother decided in her middle age in the 1960s to get a master’s degree in political science at Johns Hopkins University, the dean asked, maybe implored her to explain why she didn’t just move on, forget an advanced degree and be content as a homemaker. She handled the insult well—and graduated first in her class.

Constructive retribution can be sweet indeed.

I understand that 2020 will be the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment legalizing suffrage for women. Easily forgotten, the suffrage law removed electoral bondage imposed on women by American culture since our nation’s founding. Women were second-class citizens when it came to participating in the democratic process.

And so many other society pursuits, such as jobs and equal pay, were often closed to women.

I started off this column by musing about the beginning of the school year. I then went astray a bit by discussing teaching moments available in our national history.

Our children and grandchildren can experience the good and bad about our American culture and history outside the classroom. That’s as it should be.

Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.

The Presidential Campaign As Reality TV? Wrong! By Craig Fuller

September 16, 2019 by Craig Fuller 1 Comment

Time was when running for President of the United States came after years of public service, building a national base and racking up life experience that could credibly suggest an individual was prepared to serve the nation in a complicated world if elected. Watching most of a 3-hour debate last week and hearing the commentary before and after show, makes me think we’ve managed to turn one of the most important elements of a democracy into a reality TV event in search of television audiences. And, there are real consequences!

My sensibilities about this come from the good fortune of having had a direct engagement in five presidential campaigns; two of which I was involved in running. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Pete Wilson all spent years in public life. They operated in the world of elected office and had executive branch experience. They dealt extensively with domestic and foreign policy. And, they traveled the country for years building their national political base and they traveled the world building understanding and relationships with foreign leaders. All this before ever announcing an ambition to seek the presidency.

In these efforts, the individuals who would become presidential candidates gained a better understanding of the country; and, citizens in early and important primary states gained an understanding of those who were “testing the waters.” Now, it seems there are no “waters.” Simply announcing gives an individual media attention. Professional fundraisers turn that into cash. The cash pays for advertising — a one-way form of communications where a candidate cannot listen. With enough cash and enough advertising airtime, polling begins to register some “movement.” That generates news…especially cable news. Soon, someone is rising in the eyes of the media.

The big break comes not for a surprising victory in Iowa (Bush, 1980) or a crushing win in New Hampshire (Reagan, 1980). No, the big break comes by getting time on the stage of a nationally televised debate. Even more, once scheduled to participate, commentators surmise one’s chances. The pundits explain what someone “has to do.” And, after the televised event, commentators share their instant view of how people did. Who had a better opening statement. Who got the best shot at the front runner is determined. I even heard this past weekend a critique of who had the funniest line of the debate (Booker: “…my answer is no…and, to translate that into Spanish, no.”)

Now, you can’t really criticize a person for entering the contest as it is presently configured. But, it used to be a voyage taken by an experienced and well-known statesman like individual. Today, it goes to those who crave television time and can raise the funds to meet the rather low threshold for the right to be on the show.

It’s argued that second tier candidates know they cannot win. However, many do win in their own way. Suddenly, we have people who in virtually every case expand their reputation well beyond anything they have previously enjoyed because of media exposure. Even if the probability of Oval Office success is remote, they might land in the cabinet. Or, maybe even on the ticket. They increase their possibility for success in seeking a higher office than the one they hold, if they even hold one. And, then there is always the possibility that from defeat will come a highly charged career as a pundit….always interesting to see how many people who having failed to win an election suddenly have such pithy views about what it takes to get elected.

I think we’ve broken the process so necessary to a presidential quest. The early televised debates for the many who seek exposure has had the effect of turning this important process away from building personal experience and a following into a televised reality show of sorts. And, my experience suggests that the skills necessary to perform in a televised debate do not perfectly align with what it takes to be a successful chief executive of the nation.

Of course, knowing something is broken and fixing it are very different things. I would like to think that there could be some agreement not to have these early televised debates. Let the field compete inside the key early primary states with the four or five leading candidates sharing local stages where issues can really be discussed – another big thing with me. Imagine telling someone that you would really like to hear their views on a matter of mutual interest and then letting them know you’ve allocated one minute and fifteen seconds for them to share their thoughts.

Trouble is, there are too many forces driving the early debates. Fundraisers want their candidates to get the airtime. Candidates want to increase their television exposure. The media wants and needs content, so these shows are passed off as news events where the political journalists share time in the chairs as the panelists in the debates.

In the end, voters really will make the decisions. And, if the early debates really meant much in determining who would be elected, there would be a list of former presidents very different than what history offers. However, the trend is disturbing. Mastering the early media show “primary process” brings attention and contributions. To the extent we allow the media show to replace real engagement over years of service to our citizens, we put ourselves at risk of lowering the threshold to reach the highest public office in the land. And, wouldn’t that be a shame.

Craig Fuller served four years in the White House as assistant to President Reagan for Cabinet Affairs, followed by four years as chief of staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Having been engaged in five presidential campaigns and run public affairs firms and associations in Washington, D.C., he now resides on the Eastern Shore.

Mickey Mouse on the Wing by George Merrill

September 15, 2019 by George R. Merrill Leave a Comment

A little bug lives around my porch. He looks like a fly, but just barely. He’s fun to watch.

His body is smooth. It’s without the hair common to flies and he’s shaped shiny and sinuous like the body of an ant and about as big. His proboscis is long considering his overall size. He’s always walking around looking for something.

While looking around, his wings will extend outward and expose large distinctive black circles at their tips. His wings look like Mickey Mouse’s ears.

He’ll often light on me to just explore the contours of my skin. He stumbles through the hair on my arm, like an expeditionary force forging paths through dense jungle undergrowth.

I was lying in the sun one day and he landed on the top of my hand. It’s mostly hairless, so he moved around easily. He got to my index finger, walked to and fro on it finally arriving at the tip and settling on my fingernail. It must have seemed like a clearing. The cuticle especially interested him. I noticed his proboscis and how he used it to examine the cuticle. He placed it like a blind man uses his cane, tapping the terrain ahead to get the lay of the land. He was checking out every millimeter.

What was he looking for? I will never know, of course, but it might be that the search was sufficient for him. Just exploring a new neighborhood was enough.

What are any of us looking for? In a manner of speaking, we have very long proboscises. We have investigated everything in and out of sight, from the composition of DNA to the outer reaches of space. However, nothing sates us very long; whatever we find isn’t what we want. I think we’re looking for nourishment; I believe it’s food for the soul.

I’m persuaded that a compulsive appetite for more is driven by the thrill of acquisition, not the value of the object sought. Just getting something is the nature of that kind of game.

There’s another kind of search, though. This search is for no other reason than the sheer joy of it.

A man who does yard work will occasionally bring his young son with him. The boy is about five. One day the man appeared with two boys, his son and the son’s older cousin.

The dad began his chores. The boys began roaming the property. They’d pass by my studio windows the way I’ve seen squirrels, darting from one thing to the next, as if scouring the ground for morsels. In this case, they were (they’d tell us later) in the search of treasures.

At times they looked like string-puppets, their limbs twitching, heads wagging as though they were affixed to invisible strings dictating their motions.

The older boy was clearly the leader. Whither he went, the younger happily followed. Everywhere they roamed, the older one shepherded him, like a mentor, showing and sharing with him all the mysteries he uncovered in our front yard. Follow the leader, unpopular today, was a good thing in this case.

They romped back and forth past my window. The object of one sortie was the magnolia tree, particularly the seed pods, the remains of the spent blossoms which had fallen on the bed of river rocks arranged around its base. They picked the pods up, scrutinized them briefly, and then held them as if emulating flight, perhaps of a dirigible, making sounds I couldn’t make out. Tiring of this, they threw them like miniature footballs out onto the yard.

The boys were the icons of perpetual motion.

The trust the younger felt for the older was apparent and no matter what new thing they came upon, the older immediately enlisted the younger in exploring it with him. I was especially moved by this; perhaps for feeling jaded in this era of ours that seems to be wanting in the kind of leadership that invites partnership and particularly communicates caring.

My wife invited them into the house. But, no! They were content to stay outdoors. It was a wide and wonderful world out there in the yard, too much so for them to be confined indoors.

The boys invited her to join them at the shoreline. They’d unearthed a treasure they were eager to have her see.

The treasure turned out to be a rock. It was unremarkable except that it appeared to have been sliced clean in half, revealing a marvelous interior. Perhaps an agate, a geode? In either case its bland gray exterior belied the rich hues of the interior, like colored crystals, which if you were to turn the stone in the light, the colors appeared to glow.

The boys asked if they might take home the treasures. Of course, they could.

Familiarity breeds unawareness. We stop looking. In fact, there is so much that has been staring you and me in the face that we never really see. Children don’t miss a thing. Turn them loose and they’re sure to widen our horizons. They remain awe-stricken by the world. It’s a great place to just explore.

In their search, the boys had discovered the magnolia’s seed pod stems. The magnolia stands right outside my studio window. For 30 years I watched it bloom and then drop its leaves and eventually its seed pods. Feel the stems, they insisted. It fascinated them. The stem was soft and velvety to the touch. I, too, was fascinated by its peculiar property.

What I had been caught up in with the boys’ visit was the ‘joie de vivre’ they possessed, that magical excitement that’s generated in the experience of just searching – just looking around a place – for the first time.

Children seek with fresh minds, with curiosity devoid of preconditioned ideas or prejudices which inevitably are the fruits of aging. Imagine seeing something for the very first time, maybe the lunar eclipse, and since you and I may have had no history with it, the seeing contains a purity of excitement that’s rare in the adult world.

For all that, I decided that the best kinds of seeking we’ll ever do is the kind that has no agenda, no need for an acquisition. I suspect my little friend with wings like mickey Mouse’s ears, was all over my arm and hand just for the fun of it, nothing more than curiosity about this strange humanoid who occupies the porch and has hairy arms and fingernails as smooth as glass.

The wisdom in all this is that when the search itself is enough, then we find what we’re looking for.

Columnist George Merrill is an Episcopal Church priest and pastoral psychotherapist. A writer and photographer, he’s authored two books on spirituality: Reflections: Psychological and Spiritual Images of the Heart and The Bay of the Mother of God: A Yankee Discovers the Chesapeake Bay. He is a native New Yorker, previously directing counseling services in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Baltimore. George’s essays, some award winning, have appeared in regional magazines and are broadcast twice monthly on Delmarva Public Radio.

Church Hill’s “33 Variations” a Masterpiece — Spy Review by Peter Heck

September 11, 2019 by Peter Heck Leave a Comment

Eddie Vance as Ludwig van Beethoven

When I first heard that Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations was scheduled for performance at Church Hill Theatre, I wasn’t sure what to expect. To be honest, it sounded a bit dry and academic. Boy, was I wrong! This is a thoroughly absorbing play, built around a compelling human story and some of the most powerful music you’ll hear on a local stage. The music is absolutely magnificent.

The play originally appeared at Washington’s Arena Stage in September 2007. It made its Broadway debut in 2009, with Jane Fonda in the lead role — her first Broadway appearance in 46 years. Zack Grenier took the role of Beethoven, a part he played in a 2008 west coast production. In 2007, it won the Egerton New American Play Award, and in 2008 the American Theater Critics award as best new play. The Broadway production was nominated for several Tony awards, including best play, best performance by leading and featured actors (Fonda and Grenier). It won the award for best scenic design, by Derek McLane.

The plot is the story of musicologist Dr. Katherine Brandt, a specialist in the music of Beethoven. She has received special access to the library in Bonn, Germany, where musical manuscripts and other documents of Beethoven’s life are stored, with the goal of researching the composer’s “Diabelli Variations.” Based on a simple waltz by a music publisher who asked all the leading composers of his day to write variations – a gimmick to create a quick best-seller – Beethoven’s 33 variations are a challenging work that Dr. Brandt finds intriguing. Why did this banal dance tune inspire such a powerful response from one of the greatest musicians who ever lived?

Pianist Stephanie King LaMotte

As we soon learn, Dr. Brandt is working under a severe handicap. A victim of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, she faces progressive physical deterioration that will eventually kill her. Despite her diagnosis–or perhaps because of it–Dr. Brandt is determined to go ahead with her plans and travel to Germany to continue her research. Her daughter, Clara, is appalled by this decision. She is worried about her mother’s illness. What if she gets worse? Who will take care of her mother in Germany? Clara is also angry and hurt that her mother would choose to spend what remaining time she has in Germany with Beethoven and not at home with Clara.

But Dr. Brandt is not the only character struggling against a cruel universe; at the same time as we follow her story, we see Beethoven’s efforts to complete the variations, complicated by his struggle against deafness – perhaps the most devastating affliction that can befall a musician. Their two stories play out in close parallel, with lines and themes echoing back and forth between them. And tying them together is the actual music of Beethoven’s 33 variations, performed by a pianist who occupies the center of the stage.

But to summarize the plot that baldly is to leave out much of the play. There is a great deal of humor, especially in the scenes with Beethoven, his assistant Schindler, and Diabelli, the music publisher and composer. There is a love story, as Dr. Brandt’s daughter and a male nurse find themselves drawn to one another. There is the puzzle that caught Brandt’s attention in the first place: why the great composer was attracted to such an unimpressive, mediocre melody by Diabelli? And there is the critical element of the acting – the Church Hill production features seven actors and a pianist working together to create a truly memorable experience. Kudos to director Michael Whitehill for orchestrating it all.

Kathy Jones

Kathy Jones, who is becoming one of the most versatile actors in the local theater community, takes the role of Dr. Brandt. She does a good job of conveying her character’s drive to understand the music and her determination not to let her disease slow her down. At the same time, she convincingly shows the effects of the disease – I was reminded of video footage of the physicist Stephen Hawking, one of the most famous modern victims of ALS. A virtuoso performance by Jones, done very naturally and convincingly.

Eddie Vance, who was most recently in CHT’s Jesus Christ Superstar, has a juicy role as Ludwig van Beethoven. One of the most brilliant geniuses in musical history – and well aware of the fact – the character is at the same time completely impractical. Dressed in slovenly clothes, chronically behind in his rent, unconcerned with currying favor from rich patrons, he depends on his friends to take care of the basic tasks of everyday life. Vance plays up the character’s comic side, which does a good bit to humanize the composer. Very nicely done.

Dr. Brandt’s daughter Clara, who struggles to understand her mother’s drive to continue working while she is ill, is played by Kendall Irene Davis. A 2016 graduate of Washington College, Davis has moved into the local theater scene both onstage and off, with important roles in several CHT plays and choreography credits on Jesus Christ Superstar. Here, she finds a nice balance between her character’s anxiety for her dying mother and her new love interest in the male nurse who is attending her mother.

Kathy Jones as Dr. Katherine Brandt and Debra Ebersole as Dr. Gertrude Lagenburger

Debra Ebersole, another CHT veteran, is cast as Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger, a German musicologist who is in charge of the Beethoven archives Brandt has come to study. At first stern and unsympathetic, she unbends during the course of the play to become the American’s main helper. A beautiful and nuanced performance by Ebersole, showing a nice range.

Will Robinson as Anton Schindler and Ken Gresh as Anton Diabelli

Will Robinson, a veteran of both CHT and Shore Shakespeare, plays Anton Schindler, Beethoven’s friend and assistant who helps the composer navigate the challenges of the day-to-day world. Robinson gives his character a delightfully pompous bearing and a supercilious mien, bringing both humor and social satire to the role. A solid job by one of the area’s most reliable character actors.

Ken Gresh plays Diabelli, who keeps trying to push Beethoven to finish his variations so the book can be published. Dressed in the peak of early 19th-century style, Gresh plays up the clear contrasts with the slovenly Beethoven, with a delicious Italian accent to cap off the characterization. Well done.

Robbie Spray plays Mike Clark, a nurse who treats Brandt and subsequently finds himself in a relationship with her daughter. Spray, whose most recent appearance was in A Flea in Her Ear at CHT, does a nice job of making the somewhat nerdish character sympathetic while still believable. Spray’s Mike is caught in the middle between his patient and his new love interest. And he has to make a decision about where his loyalty lies. Spray handles this conflict smoothly.

Kendall Irene Davis and Robbie Spray

Last, but far from least, Stephanie King LaMotte is the pianist for the production. Her playing is inspired. LaMotte is an impressive pianist. While she has no dialogue, her performance is critical in setting the emotional landscape in which the rest of the play takes place. She plays the variations – by no means easy music to play – with authority and vivid expression.

The set is very effective and very simple–a change, one might even say a variation!–from the usual elaborate, gorgeously decorated sets that director Michael Whitehill is known for. Center stage is a grand piano. A single bench on the left side of the stage represents the modern-day scenes in New York. The right-hand side is 19th century Germany with a desk and chair to show alternately Beethoven’s study or Diabelli’s, the music publisher’s, office. Lighting and costumes are also good.

I can’t praise this production highly enough; the actors are in fine form, the play itself is at the same time refreshingly different and emotionally compelling, and at the heart of it is the unparalleled music of Beethoven. Do yourself a favor and go see it. And be sure to tell your friends about it.

33 Variations will be playing through Sept. 22, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for CHT members, and $10 for students. Call the box office at 410-556-6003 or visit www.churchhilltheatre.org for reservations or additional information.

All photos by Steve Atkinson

Shore Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” at Centreville Wharf, Fri.-Sat., Sept. 13-14

September 11, 2019 by Jane Jewell Leave a Comment

The cast of Shore Shakespeare’s 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

The Bard is alive and well on the Eastern Shore of Maryland! Now in its 8th year, Shore Shakespeare has produced one or more plays each summer, all performed outdoors in the traditional Elizabethan style with elaborate costumes and clever portable sets. This year the company has chosen one of Shakespeare’s most well-known and perhaps most controversial plays – The Merchant of Venice. The tour started with one weekend in Cambridge, followed by a weekend in Oxford, and now Shore Shakespeare is coming to Centreville for its final performances of the 2019 season.

The Centreville performances will begin at 6:00 pm on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13 and 14 at the Wharf at 212 Watson Road. All performances are free and open to the public. So pack a picnic, grab a blanket and chair and come see Shakespeare under the stars just like in the Elizabethan era.

Program cover for Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

Directed by Christian Rogers and Juanita Wieczoreck, The Merchant of Venice tells the story of two sets of star-crossed lovers in 16th century Venice, Italy. Bassanio, a young fortune-hunter, seeks a loan from his friend Antonio, the merchant of the title, so he can compete for the hand of Portia, a beautiful heiress. Antonio is short of funds and, against his better judgment, borrows the money from Shylock, a notorious Jewish moneylender. In the meantime, the other set of lovers, Jessica and Lorenzo, have eloped, bringing down on them the wrath of Jessica’s father, Shylock. Her father is especially upset because Jessica has married out of her faith — Lorenzo is a Christian. Shylock is devastated but no one seems to have any sympathy or understanding for him. Unfortunately, this happens just when Antonio’s trading ships meet with disaster at sea and Antonio is no longer able to repay Bassanio’s debt to Shylock — which has now come due.

Here is where it becomes tricky — and controversial. This is the famous “pound of flesh” which Antonio agreed to pay if the loan was not repaid in full on time. No one ever thought it would come to that. But Shylock, still angry and stung by his daughter’s defection, insists on getting his “pound of flesh” and a trial is set. Through various schemes and tricks, including multiple disguises, Antonio’s life is saved.

The Merchant of Venice uses many of Shakespeare’s favorite dramatic devices including characters in disguise, often as the opposite sex. Here Portia and her companion Nerissa disguise themselves as legal scholars–male, of course–and successfully argue Antonio’s case in court. Neither Bassanio nor Antonio nor the Duke who is the judge recognize them, thus not-so-subtly pointing out that, in this case, the women are the smart ones. But it is all done good-naturedly and the lovers presumably live happily ever after.

The cast of Merchant features company co-founders Avra Sullivan as Portia and Christian Rogers as Antonio. Shylock is played by Brian McGunigle with Max Hagan as Bassiano and Howard Mesick as Gratiano. Also in the cast are Jackie Royer, Li Wojehowski, Troy Strootman, Paul Briggs, Samantha Davis, Josh Hansen, John Feldman, Deanna van Skiver, and Jane and John Tereby. The production is co-directed by Christian Rogers and Juanita Wieczoreck, with costume design by Barbi Bedell and tech support by Hope Dorman.

Li Wojehowski as Jessica, Brian McGunigle as Shylock in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

Troy Strootman as Lorenzo, Howard Mesick as Gratiano in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

The Merchant of Venice has been controversial for centuries – though not always for the same reasons. At the time, anti-semitism was common, accepted, and usually ensconced in law. The city-state of Venice was much more tolerant of diversity–including religious diversity– than most other places in Europe. That comparative legal and social leniency, however, did not mean that there was no prejudice against those of the Jewish faith. There definitely was–in Venice, in Shakespeare’s England, and in Europe generally. Shakespeare basically uses that reality, the stereotypes of his time, for dramatic effect, using them both for humor and for symbols of the various traits of human nature. Like today, people’s attitudes varied back then. For example, Shakespeare was more sympathetic to Shylock and the Jewish faith than his rival playwright, Christopher Marlowe, was in the play The Jew of Malta. Still, a good deal of the language and the ideas in Merchant will seem offensive to modern ears even though they faithfully represent the accepted norms in Shakespeare’s day.

John and Jane Terebey as Salanio and Salarino in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

Avra Sullivan as Portia & Jackie Roye as Nerissa in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

A recent press release from Shore Shakespeare put it this way: “What should contemporary audiences make of a work whose characters and issues have been debated by audiences, scholars, critics, directors, and actors for over four hundred years? Considered both a romantic comedy and a ‘problem play,’ The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most controversial works. Set in 16th Century Venice, it is on the surface a romantic comedy featuring a love tested by obstacles placed in the path of the lovers. The play also examines the darker themes of intolerance, tribalism, betrayal, and revenge – personified in the characters Antonio, a Christian merchant, and Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. As the two plotlines weave together, nothing in The Merchant of Venice is quite what it seems to be. …

Brian McGunigle as Shylock, Max Hagan as Bassanio, Chris Rogers as Antonio (lying down center) in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

“Whatever you think you already know about the play, this production will challenge your assumptions and defy your expectations. The Merchant of Venice, in the words of Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, ‘scrapes against a bedrock of beliefs about the racial, national, sexual and religious difference of others. I can think of no other literary work that does so as unrelentingly and honestly.’ So honestly that it should be noted that the text contains language that some may find offensive.”

Shore Shakespeare invites you to make plans now to see this thoughtful and honest production.”

The Shore Shakespeare Company is affiliated with The Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Donations to The Shore Shakespeare Fund are fully tax-deductible. More information is available at Shore Shakespeare’s website and on their FaceBook page.

Paul Briggs as Launcelot, Li Wojehowski as Jessica in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

Troy Strootman as the Prince of Morocco in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

Brian McGunigl as Shylock in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

Howard Mesick as the Prince of Arragon in Shore Shakespeare 2019 production of “The Merchant of Venice”

All photos credit Christine Kinlock

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Musings of a Master Beekeeper: David Smith Reflects on his Life with Bees

September 11, 2019 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

One would think that Church Hill’s David Smith would be willing to sit down with the Spy to talk about his amazing career as a Navy submarine commander during the cold war. But it was the remarkable side story to David’s life, a lifelong passion for bees, that was the subject of our Spy chat a few weeks ago.

Well before he started at the Navy Academy, David Smith had already made beekeeping a part of his life growing up in rural Indiana. With the help of a 7th-grade math teacher, he not only loved watching bee colonies grow but creating better solutions to ensure their survival. It was also the first time he experienced a bee sting and realized the pain suffered was negligible given the pleasure of watching honey being made.

The Spy sat down with David a few miles from downtown Church Hill as a special reflection point. In the last year, he decided to sell his bees as he and his wife prepare for a move to a retirement community. And while it turns out his new community has shown interest in hosting bees, it was an excellent time to hear him talk about his own bee stories.

This video is approximately five minutes in length

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